AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'The imaginations of convicts in Australia became attuned to the pairing of opposites and this led to strange tensions in their way of representing things. On Norfolk Island the meanings of words were reversed, so that ‘good’ meant ‘bad’ and ‘ugly’ meant ‘beautiful’. This undermining of official meanings produced the argot called the ‘flash’ or ‘kiddy’ language of the colony. Designed at first to keep private sentiments from being inspected, it eventually supported a system of dissident actions called ‘cross-work’ or ‘cross doings’. One word loomed large amidst these inversions: ‘fakement’, meaning booty, forgery or deceit. The verb has more extensive meanings: rob, wound, shatter; ‘fake your slangs’ means break your shackles. It also meant performing a fiction and accepting the consequences of it.' (Publication abstract)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
- Our Country's Good 1988 single work drama
- A Letter From Sydney The Principal Town of Australasia : & Other Writings on Colonization 1929 collected work correspondence
- Moondyne : A Story from the Under-world 1878-1879 single work novel
- For the Term of His Natural Life 1927 single work lyric/song
- Robbery Under Arms 1947 single work review
- True History of the Kelly Gang 2000 single work novel
- Jack Maggs 1997 single work novel
- The Recruiting Officer 1706 single work drama
- Jail Journal; or, Five Years in British Prisons. Commenced on Board the Shearwater Steamer, in Dublin Bay, Continued at Spike Island—On Board the Scourge War Steamer—On Board the 'Dromedary' Hulk, Bermuda—On Board the Neptune Convict Ship—At Pernambuco—At the Cape of Good Hope (during the Anti-Convict Rebellion)—At Van Diemen’s Land—At Sydney—At Tahiti—At San Francisco—At Greytown—And Concluded at No. 3 Pier, North River, New York. 1854 single work autobiography prose
